Unlike Rome, Venice, Florence, or even Naples, Milan for the casual tourist can be a challenge. There isn’t a long checklist of must-sees. In fact, Italy’s most modern city can seem cold and uninviting. But a new book from Vendome, Inside Milan: Colorfully Creative Italian Interiors, takes you past the forbidding gray stone walls of its apartment buildings and into some of the city’s more spectacular residences. It’s also the latest selection for our series on gorgeous new coffee table books, Just Booked.
In fact, there’s a decent chance it will make you want to fly back ASAP and befriend some of its residents so you can get inside. The book was put together by the interior designer Nicolo Castellini Baldissera and the photographer Guido Taroni, whose other works covering Tangier and Mongiardino we have covered. Each home is given a little introduction by Baldissera, almost as if you’re meeting your hosts before you’re welcomed across the threshold.
And while the streetscape of Milan might be relatively sedate, these homes are anything but. They’re colorful, loud, vibrant, provocative, sumptuous, and filled with odds and ends that come alive through Taroni’s lens. There are decadent historic rooms like those of the rarely-photographed Palazzo Trivulzio Brivio Sforza (say that five times fast!) and ones filled with so many patterns and textures and materials like that of Lapo Elkann’s modern penthouse your eyes might struggle to take it all in.
